Liz Cheney on Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence testifying to Jan. 6 panel and her own future
Liz Cheney teases a White House run, but her biggest impact on GOP could come through other paths
Cheney on a 2024 White House bid
The morning after her loss to in the Wyoming Republican primary to Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman, Cheney suggested she is considering a run for the White House in 2024.
Would she run as a Republican? That may not be automatic.
“I haven’t made any specific decisions or plans about that at this point,” she told ABC News, when asked whether she would run under the GOP banner.
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She would not speculate further on whether she’d campaign as an independent.
Cheney considers 2024 presidential bid after Wyoming loss
Cheney on the RNC’s reaction to her potential presidential bid
Cheney acknowledged the Republican National Committee wasn’t warmly greeting the possibility she’d run for the White House.
“I can understand why they would not want me on a debate stage with Donald Trump,” she said. “I can understand why they wouldn’t want it, and I would imagine Donald Trump isn’t too interested in that either.”
Who is Liz Cheney?:What are her political positions? Is she running for president? What we know.
Cheney on Mike Pence testifying to the Jan. 6 committee
Cheney may be leaving Congress but she still serves as vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, which has held a series of public hearings this summer.
She said the special panel has been in talks with legal counsel for former Vice President Mike Pence, who she says “played a critical role on January 6th.”
Pence on Wednesday said he would “consider” testifying before the panel if asked.
Cheney noted that while she didn’t see those comments, “it sounds like they were pretty similar to what his counsel has been saying.”
She acknowledged Pence has “concerns about executive privilege.” She said that while she respects those concerns, “I also think that when the country has been through something as grave as this was, everyone who has information has an obligation to step forward. So I would hope that he will do that.”
the committee resumes public hearings next month?
“Well, I would hope that he will understand how important it is for the American people to know every aspect of the truth about what happened that day,” Cheney said.
September hearings:Jan. 6 committee promises more hearings this fall. What we know (and don’t) about what happens next
Cheney on Kevin McCarthy
Asked whether House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy should become the next speaker of the House, should Republicans take back the chamber in November’s midterm elections, Cheney did not mince words: “Well, my views about Kevin McCarthy are very clear.”
Noting the speaker is in the presidential line of succession, Cheney said McCarthy is not fit for the role: “He’s been completely unfaithful to the Constitution and demonstrated a total lack of understanding of the significance and the importance of the role of speaker. So I don’t believe he should be speaker of the House.”
Cheney on Ron DeSantis
Asked about whether she would oppose a potential presidential candidacy of DeSantis, Cheney put the Florida governor in the camp of those who don’t support the 2020 outcome.
“I think that DeSantis is somebody who is, right now, campaigning for election denier,” she said. “And I think that, you know, that is something that I think people have got to have real pause about. You know, either you fundamentally believe in and will support our constitutional structure, or you don’t.”
Cheney on what’s next
First up for Cheney, the vice chair and one of two Republicans on the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is completing that work, she said.
She has also started a political organization to fight those who deny the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
“I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not to elect election deniers,” she said. “I think that they – we’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country. And I’m going to work against those people, I’m going to work to support their opponents; I think it matters that much.”
Cheney on reaction to her reelection loss
Among those Cheney heard from following her Tuesday defeat to Hageman: President Joe Biden.
“We had a very – a very good talk, a talk about the importance of putting the country ahead of partisanship,” Cheney said of Biden.
Cheney on the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump
The Wyoming Republican was one of 10 to vote to impeach Trump in his second trial in January 2021, following the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. She says that vote has she and her nine colleagues linked together in perpetuity.
“We have difference of opinion – differences of opinion, among the 10 of us, about a whole range of issues – of other issues,” she said. But the fact that we all made the decision we did and have faced the consequences for that decision will be a bond, I would imagine, forever.”